Remember the Hindi films of the Bold 70s – even upto 80s and 90s? They were showing cabaret dances with ‘vamps’ dancing and prancing in revealing clothes, doing every vulgar action you can think of – but when it came to the Hero and Heroine, they were chaste as the driven snow. Kissing each other in a lip lock? Unthinkable! Even if they were supposedly kissing, the Director got all coy about it and all you could see on the screen was the cliched shot of two flowers nodding together!
All that changed with Aamir Khan – Karishma’s “Raja Hindustani” and then Hashmi – the serial kisser!
Now, every new leading guy on the silver screen has no qualms doing it – even if the ladies are not so forthcoming.
Aditya Roy Kapur has done it with Katrina in Fitoor. Lead pair of Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor shared a passionate lip lock on a rickety bridge over the Dal Lake on Sunday as curious locals living in the adjacent houses looked on in amazement. The twosome play Noor and Firdaus, the desi versions of Charles Dickens’ starcrossed lovers Pip and Estella from Great Expectations. Looking ethereal in white, Katrina is met on the bridge by a lovelorn Aditya who kisses her after offering her the warmth of his shawl. The shoot was delayed for a few hours after unexpected snowfall on Sunday morning. Aditya has earlier also smooched in the film, Aashiqui 2 and doesn’t seem to have any qualms about kissing in front of the camera.
Ranbir Kapoor, has done it with many of his leading ladies. He shared seven ’rounds’ of lip locks with Anushka Sharma in film Bombay Velvet – and yet it flopped!
Before that he had kissed Deepika, his ex flame in ‘Yeh Jawani hai Deewani’ and Ileana D’Cruz in Barfi.
In an interview , Ranbir had said, “Kissing on-screen is extremely technical! You have to see if the light is coming right, if your face is in the right position for the camera. Besides there are so many people around! I am an actor and it’s a part of my acting. I also don’t usually need retakes. I am a good kisser.”
In fact all the stars of today are doing it with elan. Whether it is Arjun Kapoor in 2 states or his first movie Ishaqzade, Varun Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra who made their debut together in Student of the year – they have got intimate with their lady loves in all their subsequent films.
But do these scenes really guarantee success? Nah!!
Or Bombay Velvet, Aurangzeb etc. wouldn’t have flopped.
The only leading guy who seems to have a 100% strike rate in this department is Ranvir Singh. Whether it was with Anushka in Band Baja Baraat or Deepika in Ram Leela his lip locks and steaming scenes have translated into B.O success.
Not to be outdone by all these new Johnies on the block, the original serial kisser Emran is going to make a grand come back in his upcoming flick, Azhar, based on the life of former cricketer, Mohammed Azharuddin. According to a report on Bollywoodlife.com, Emraan has confirmed that he will shoot for not one but several kisses in the film. The film has three leading ladies – Prachi Desai who will play his Azhar’s first wife Noureen, Nargis Fakhri will be seen as Sangeeta Bijlani, Azhar’s second wife and finally, Huma Qureshi, who will play badminton player, Jwala Gutta, who is rumoured to be the reason behind Azhar’s split with Sangeeta. So if you thought Azhar was going to be about the former captain’s cricketing triumphs, think again!
How the film fares at the B.O. though will tell how much of a pro Emran still is!
Meanwhile, the sweet and innocent Prem that Salman has played in PRDP who chastely keeps telling lady love Sonam ” not now! wait till we are married” is ruling over the B.O. with the film’s stupendous success.
Looks like we Indians are still very coy and shy in our sensibilities – so Bollywood, don’t plan to go the complete Hollywood way about showing intimate scenes.
We are Indians – we still don’t kiss in public!!
— Sunita Mudaliar
